Introduction to MAP Toolkit 5.0 and an overview screencast

In the last couple of posts, I discussed SQL server discovery feature as well as Software Usage tracking feature of MAP toolkit. In this blog, I would like to introduce you to some of the technical specifics of the MAP toolkit.

The MAP Toolkit is designed to let you quickly and easily perform an inventory of your hardware environment, assess your current IT infrastructure, and determine the right Microsoft technologies for your IT needs. The data and analysis provided by this toolkit greatly simplifies the planning process to migrate software, assess device driver availability, and obtain hardware upgrade recommendations. The MAP Toolkit also gathers performance metrics from computers you are considering for virtualization, and includes a feature to model a library of potential host and storage hardware configurations.

Inventories your infrastructure to assess and verify what is present in your existing environment to best determine hardware and software readiness to plan for migration. For example, locating and reporting on instances of legacy operating systems, like Windows 2000.

Tracks software usage for software asset management purpose.

Assesses readiness and determines what needs to be done to successfully update all the hardware and software inventoried in your environment to the latest software and hardware standards.

The MAP Toolkit uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Active Directory®, SMS Provider and other technologies to collect data in your environment without using agents. After the data is gathered, you can parse and evaluate it for specific hardware and software needs and requirements. The tool runs securely in small or large IT environments without requiring you to install agent software on any computers or devices. For further details, please check out the the MAP 5.0 overview screencast